The collector tool gathers information about your WebSphere® Application Server installation and
packages it in a Java archive (JAR) file that you
can send to IBM® Customer Support to assist in determining
and analyzing your problem. Information in the JAR file includes logs,
property files, configuration files, operating system and Java data, and the presence and level of each
software prerequisite.
Before you begin
The sort of information that you gather is not something
that most people use. In fact, the collector tool packages its output
into a JAR file. IBM includes the collector tool in the product
code, along with other tools that help capture the information that
you must provide when reporting a problem. The collector tool is part
of a strategy of making problem reporting as easy and complete as
possible.
There are two phases of using the collector tool.
The first phase runs the collector tool on your WebSphere Application Server product and produces
a Java archive (JAR) file. The IBM Support
team performs the second phase, which is analyzing the Java archive (JAR) file that the collector program
produces. The collector program runs to completion as it creates the
JAR file, despite any errors that it might find like missing files
or invalid commands. The collector tool collects as much data in the
JAR file as possible.
The collector tool is a Java application
that requires a Java SE Runtime Environment 6 (JRE6)
to run.
About this task
The tool is within the installation root directory for WebSphere Application Server, Express WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment. But you
run the tool from a working directory that you create outside of the
installation root directory. This procedure describes both of those
steps and all of the other steps for using the tool and reporting
the results from running the tool.
There are two ways to run
the collector tool. Run the collector tool to collect summary data
or to traverse the system to gather relevant files and command results.
The collector tool produces a Java archive
(JAR) file of information needed to determine and solve a problem.
The collector
summary option produces a lightweight collection of version
and other information that is useful when first reporting the problem
to IBM Support. Run the collector tool from the
root user or from the administrator user to access system files that
contain information about kernel settings, installed packages, and
other vital data.
The tool collects information about the default
profile if you do not use the optional parameter to identify another
profile.
Procedure
- Run the collector tool.
- Log on to the system as root or a member of the administrator
group on a Windows® platform.
- Verify that Java 1.2.2
or higher is available in the path.
The collector program
requires Java code to run. It also collects
data about the IBM Developer Kit, Java Technology
Edition in which it runs.
If there are multiple Developer Kits
on the system, verify that the one that the WebSphere Application Server product uses is
the one in the path for the collector program.
If the Developer
Kit being used by the WebSphere Application Server is
not available, put another Developer Kit in the path for the collector
program so that you can collect everything except data about the Developer
Kit that WebSphere Application Server, Express WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment is using.
- Verify that all necessary information is in the path
being used by the collector program and that you are not running the
program from within the WebSphere Application Server product
installation root directory.
- Verify that the path contains
the following system directories:
- /bin
- /sbin
- /usr/bin
- /usr/sbin
- Include regedit in the
path.
- Make a working directory where you can start the collector
program.
- Make the working directory the current directory.
- Run the collector program by entering the fully qualified
command from the command line of the working directory.
- Run the following command from Qshell:
app_server_root/bin/collector.sh
app_server_root\bin\collector.bat
Use
the command with no additional parameter to gather one copy of the
profile data and data from each server in the node, and to store the
data in a single JAR output file.
- Use the following command to gather data from a specific profile
that might not be the default profile.
app_server_root/bin/collector.sh -profileName profile_name
app_server_root\bin\collector.bat -profileName profile_name
- Optional: You can run the collector tool
from a profile's bin directory instead of the app_server_root/bin/ directory.
You
should get the same output if you run the collector tool from the bin directory
of profile_root as
you would running it from app_server_root.
Issuing
the command from the profile also runs the setupCmdLine.bat/sh file
in the profile's bin directory. This file sets
an environment parameter that the collector uses to determine which
profile's data to collect.
To
run this command for the deployment manager, for example, issue the
following at a prompt:
app_server_root/profiles/dmgr/bin/collector.sh
app_server_root\profiles\dmgr\bin\collector.bat
where
dmgr is
the profile name for the deployment manager.
- Run the collector tool.
- Log on to the system with a user profile that has all
object (*ALLOBJ) special authority.
- Make a working directory where you can start the collector
program.
- Run the STRQSH command from the CL command line
to prepare to run the collector program.
- Make the working directory the current directory.
- Run the following command from Qshell:
cd workingDirectory
The collector program writes its output JAR file to the current
directory. The program also creates and deletes a number of temporary
files in the current directory. Creating a work directory to run the
collector program avoids naming collisions and makes cleanup easier.
You cannot run the collector tool in a directory under the installation
root directory for WebSphere Application Server, Express WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment.
- Run the collector program by entering the fully qualified
command from the command line of the working directory.
- Run the following command from Qshell:
app_server_root/bin/collector
- Use the following command to gather data from a specific profile
that might not be the default profile.
- Run the following command from Qshell:
app_server_root/bin/collector -profileName profile_name
- Optional: You can also run the collector
tool from the profile's root directory instead of the app_server_root/bin/ directory.
Run the following command from Qshell:
profile_root/bin/collector
You
should get the same output if you run the collector tool from the bin directory
of profile_root as
you would running it from app_server_root.
Issuing
the command from the profile also runs the setupCmdLine file in the
profile's bin directory. This file sets an environment
parameter that the collector uses to determine which profile's data
to collect.
To run this
command for the deployment manager, for example, issue the following
at a prompt:
app_server_root/profiles/dmgr/bin/collector
where
dmgr is
the profile name for the deployment manager.
Results
The collector program creates the Collector.log log
file and an output JAR file in the current directory.
The name
of the JAR file is composed of the host name, cell name, node name,
and profile name:
host_name-cell_name-node_name-profile_name.JAR
The Collector.log log
file is one of the files collected in the host_name-cell_name-node_name-profile_name.JAR file.
What to do next
Send the host_name-cell_name-node_name-profile_name.JAR file
to IBM Support for analysis.